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Are You Print Shy?

Can one actually be shy in print? If you are, you know what we’re referring to. Others might think that hiding behind that keyboard would give shy people the strength to do brave things: joke, admonish, bully, engage in witty repartee. And perhaps it does. I think though that print-shy people are a different crowd with a different problem from socially shy people.

Print-shy people don’t know what to say; and when they do, they’re insecure about how to say it. The linguistic nabobs who pontificate with their vaunted grammar edicts, and the flowery fakes who flaunt their full vocabularies intimidate and drown them out. Like quiet baby birds, P-shyers (oops, I did it) get no worms. We don’t see them (in print), so we don’t help them (fit in, in print).

Well, Ballpoint has an idea for you P-shy people (oops, I did it again) to enliven your vocabulary, give you some confidence, and become the life of the digital party. Or at least not a wallflower.

ASSIGNMENT: Let’s run with that. Let’s take the Word of the Day from The Ballpoint Revue and use it in a sentence one time a day for 30 days on your Facebook wall, Twitter feed, in an email or text. Post your sentences on the Ballpoint Facebook page underneath the post. Make new words your bitches.

A Word of the Day page, showing a running total of all our past entries, is under construction and should make its debut in a day or two.

Try it out. Changing or establishing new habits requires repeated exercise over time. A few minutes a day. That’s all. You can get this funny Hipster Habit App to help with your discipline (or just make you laugh). Share your results and amuse us. And if you’re already clever (most of you reading here, most likely), show us how it’s done.

Well, Eric, *you’ve* brightened mine! And thank you for taking the trouble to post your compliment here on the blog. Encouragement like this both lets us know which posts are speaking to people, and keeps up our enthusiasm for delivering.